Joseph Stella’s oil painting Brooklyn Bridge just begged to be paired with music from the Jazz Age! The painting is absolutely engaging, powerful, and abstract. “Harlem River Quiver” features the Ellington Orchestra during their tenure at The Cotton Club from 1927–1931. Duke Ellington was very fortunate to not only perform at The Cotton Club six nights a week, but also broadcast nationwide via the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The radio had a profound impact on jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. New World Radio is one of my favorite pieces in the exhibit. “The Stampede” was one of his more influential recordings, and it features a young Coleman Hawkins soloing. Later, the group moved to the Roseland Ballroom, which was becoming one of the most prominent ballrooms, not only in New York City, but the entire country. His group first began performing at the Club Alabam on West 44th Street in New York in 1922. The Orchestra Bracelet needed to be matched with an important jazz orchestra from the 1920s, but which one? After careful consideration, Fletcher Henderson was chosen. Two Mural Panels For The Ziegfeld Theatre, The Joy of Life, 1927 Designed by Joseph Urban (American, 1872–1933) oil on canvas H x W (overall): 518.5 × 729 × 1.6 cm (17 ft. Louis Toodle-Oo.” Ellington’s composition was recorded in 1927, and the Ziegfeld Theatre opened in that same year. For the Mural Panels for the Ziegfeld Theatre, The Joy of Life: Duke Ellington’s composition, “East St. Responding to the objects using the history of the 1920s and the evocative nature of the music helped to illuminate their creative synergies. Selecting many of the other objects was not so straightforward. The Savoy Cocktail Book was yet another effortless pairing, so I chose to use “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” a 1934 recording by Chick Webb and His Orchestra. The Josephine Baker drawing was paired with her recording of “Bye Bye Blackbird,” which is a shining example of her music from the 1920s. The Gershwin painting worked well with “Rhapsody In Blue,” as it might be his most iconic work. Black and Tan Fantasy would need to be paired with Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley’s programmatic work.
In those instances, the musical pairings were straightforward. In a few cases, however, specific recordings were obvious, such as the sheet music for “Black and Tan Fantasy,” the painting George Gershwin at Piano, or the drawing of Josephine Baker by Paul Colin. More often, pairing the objects with music that was evocative of the time period would ultimately create some fascinating parallels. In many instances, the connections would be coincidental or abstract. One issue was that there is not always an obvious, direct connection between design from the Jazz Age and the music of the same time period. The first task was to limit the magnitude of the project, and to ultimately decide which objects could be paired with classic jazz recordings. With more than 400 examples of interior and industrial design, decorative art, jewelry, fashion, architecture, and film, the challenge of pairing thirty of these objects with music from 1918 to 1934 was an invigorating project. The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s is a monumental, multi-media exhibit. Painting, George Gershwin at Piano, 1926 Painted by William Auerbach-Levy (American, born Belarus, Imperial Russia, 1889–1964) oil on canvas H x W x D (framed): 114 × 139.7 × 3.8 cm (44 7/8 in.
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